Martha ‘Kakra’ Ataa-Asantewaa, is a PhD candidate at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).  Martha is an Erasmus Mundus Masters scholar under the Sustainable Tropical Forestry (SUTROFOR) scholarship and holds Master of Science degrees in Agroforestry from Bangor University, Wales, UK, and in Tropical Forestry and Management from the Technische Universität in Dresden, Germany. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture (crop science) from the University of Ghana, Legon. Martha grew up in the smallholder cocoa sector in Ghana, which explains her current passion for research among smallholder farmers. Her PhD study analyses the diversity among cocoa and oil palm smallholder farmers and how they are engaged in value chain collaborations, with a view to contributing insights into ways in which value chain engagement can be made more inclusive for smallholder farmers.  Prior to joining the University of Amsterdam, Martha had worked as a Teaching and Research Assistant at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 2010-2011, and as a Research Fellow with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) on the “Trees for Food Security in Eastern Africa” project in 2013.